Three Philosophers

by G.E.M. Anscombe, Peter T. Geach

184 pages Blackwell Pub; 4th Impression edition (2002) English 0631070303 978-0631070306

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

162 pages, hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe, better known as Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher. A student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, she became an authority on his work, and edited and translated many books drawn from his writings, above all his Philosophical Investigations. She wrote on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of action, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and ethics. Her 1958 article "Modern Moral Philosophy" introduced the term "consequentialism" into the language of analytic philosophy; this and subsequent articles had a seminal influence on contemporary virtue ethics. Her monograph Intention is generally recognized as her greatest and most influential work, and the continuing philosophical interest in the concepts of intention, action and practical reasoning can be said to have taken its main impetus from this work.

Reviews

[Rita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly a biased reading of the philosophers discussed, since the authors are a) looking at the relevance for these historical thinkers in the context of mid-20th-century analytic philosophy, and b) suffer from aforementioned mid-20th-century-analytic-philosophy Lack of Citation Disease.

That being said, I loved how this book looked at 20th century problems of essentialism from different angles and also brought attention back to Aristotle's biology. That such old ideas can still spark so much debate and inspiration for contemporary philosophy of science is truly astounding.

Not the best book if you're not already familiar with these authors (I have never read Frege and I was quite lost in the last section), but a good secondary source for those interested in essentialism, the relationship between particulars and universals (in the Aristotelian tradition), and perhaps even the limits of scientific theory (this one I might just be reading into from the prior two themes due to my personal interests). And as I said in one of my updates, this is probably the most comprehensible interpretation of Aristotle's substances that I've ever read (as a non classicist).

[Thomas Zwilling]

Thought this would try to relate its titular philosophers more, but it's three mostly independent essays (there's the occasional mention of one of the other two, but nothing beyond that). Still quality summaries, albeit brief and probably not the best for a first introduction to its subjects. Continues my accidental trend of mid-century British stuff, not sure how I ended up here.